​Corporate power ‘exorcism’ held outside London law firm billed for TTIP lawsuits

A group of radical performance activists who hail from New York staged an “exorcism” of corporate power outside an international law firm in London to raise awareness about the dangers of an EU-US trade deal being brokered behind closed doors.

The group, Reverend
Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir, conduct creative and
political performances across the globe to preserve local
communities, life and the imagination.

On their website, they describe themselves as “wild
anti-consumerist gospel shouters and Earth loving urban
activists.”

In a symbolic act of
political protest on Thursday, the performance artists targeted
the London office of global law firm King & Spalding over its
role in Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)
litigation.

The firm has represented a slew of corporations in lawsuits
against governments through a controversial investor protection
mechanism – a version of which may form part of TTIP.

The Investor-State
Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism in question has been the
focus of criticism in Europe and America, with anti-TTIP
academics, trade unionists and politicians warning it will pave
the way for corporations to sue governments attempting to
legislate in the interests of ordinary citizens.

Using this mechanism, King & Spalding has aided multiple
corporate clients who are engaged in a series of bilateral trade
pacts.

“King & Spalding have represented countless corporate
clients in suing governments for making decisions that have
benefited workers' rights, public services, or protected the
environment,” Guy Taylor, a leading trade campaigner from
Global Justice Now, told the Solicitors Journal.

“The controversial EU-USA trade deal TTIP would massively
ramp up the ability of corporations to carry out court cases like
this,” he said.

“Governments would start implementing legislation on the
basis of whether they were safe from litigious corporations
rather than whether it was beneficial to ordinary people. And law
firms like King & Spalding would make a fortune through
representing even more corporate clients in all the additional
court cases.”

On Friday evening,
Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir are also expected to
attend a 10-day spectacle of dissent organized by Occupy
Democracy in protest against corporate capture, environmental
chaos and cronyism.

Billed as a Festival of Democracy, the affair will feature a
diverse series of workshops, artistic performances, creative
direct actions and discussions throughout the election period.